Down To Earth

Editorial. Sunita Narain.
IX. XV. XIV

Green Clearance Test
For NDA

by Sunita
Narain

Environmentalists
are rightly alarmed that the NDA government is
busy dismantling the environmental regulatory
system in the country. Over the past two months,
the media has reported that clearances for
projects, from mining to roads, have been
fast-tracked. While the website of the Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MOEF) has not been
updated in August, in the two months till July
end, forest clearance was granted to over 92
projects, which will divert some 1,600 hectares of
forest. More recently, it was reported that the
National Board for Wildlife has processed many
projects located near or in sanctuaries and
national parks.

Additionally, rules are
being changed, purportedly to speed up the
process. This is being done in mainly two ways.
One, as much as possible, MOEF is pushing
decision-making to the states in the name of
streamlining the process. The Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA ) notification has been amended to
delegate powers to clear certain projects to the
state-level EIA authorities. This is being done
with the full knowledge that the state agencies
lack capacity and accountability. So, the effort
is not to take informed decisions about adverse
impacts of projects. The effort is to get rid of
the clearance system or at least to push it as far
away as possible.

Two, wherever possible
the provision of holding public hearings or taking
gram sabhas’ consent is being diluted or
even removed. For example, small coal
mines—classified as producing 8 million
tonnes annually—have been allowed to double
their capacity without holding the mandatory
public hearing. Other changes are also in the
offing that will further chip away at this
condition, which makes it necessary to get the
consent of the affected communities or at least to
hear and heed their concerns. Clearly, listening
to people is not convenient for
industry.

This said, it is
important to note that the environment was not
safeguarded during the previous UPA government as
well. Very few (less than 3 per cent) projects
were rejected because of environmental concerns;
at the most sanction was delayed. The system was
designed to obstruct and prevaricate, not to
scrutinise and assess environmental damage. The
rules were made so convoluted that they became
meaningless. The process was so complex that the
same project had to be cleared by five to seven
agencies, which had no interest in compliance of
the conditions they would set.

In some ways NDA is
doing what the UPA did but without any pretence.
The last government killed the environmental
clearance system by making it so convoluted that
it stopped functioning. It was not interested in
reform or strengthening the capacity of its
regulatory agencies. The pollution control boards
remain understaffed and grossly neglected. The
last government was certainly not interested in
monitoring the performance of the project to
ensure that environmental damage was mitigated.
There is no capacity to assess compliance and the
laws to enforce compliance are weak. It is a sad
reality that previous ministers refused to reform
the system because it was easier to control, thus,
perpetuate power.

This, then, is the real
test for the current NDA government. The need for
regulatory oversight cannot be questioned. The
environmental clearance system is a prerequisite
for efficient and sustainable management of
natural resources and, more importantly, for
ensuring that adverse impacts of economic growth
are mitigated and managed. Besides, an effective
system helps industry to manage future risks of
its investment. It cannot be done away
with.

What the NDA government
is doing now with the changes it is bringing, is
to continue to distort and dismember the system,
making it even more farcical and ineffective and,
consequently, more corrupt. The question is will
this change?

Will new minister
Prakash Javadekar keep perpetuating a bad system
or make a real difference for real
change?